Fourteenth Century Italian Art

The Midlevel Period (Middle ages)

The Midlevel Period (Middle ages)

• Subject matter in the late

• The medieval period was overwhelmingly religious.

• Art was expensive to commission.

• The Christian Church and royal/imperial families were
  primary patrons.

The medieval period began…

• With the fall of the Roman Empire

• marked by the rising power of the Church, which filled a void in administration, organization
  and power.

Manorialism (Feudalism)

• The way Medieval society was organized in three groups:

  • the nobility (landowners),

  • the clergy,

  • vassals

  • serfs/peasants (those who worked and/or protected the land in exchange for food, shelter and protection from the nobles).

In the Medieval period, emphasis was placed on…

God and spirituality

What was de-emphasized in the medieval period?

The individual and/or the body was de-emphasized if not reviled.

The end of the Medieval period is marked by

the rise of guilds and a merchant class, which became the middle class.

Gothic Cathedrals

• Long pointed arches

• flying exterior buttresses

• Ribbed vaults

• spires

• Virgin and Child flanked by Emperor Justinian and Emperor Constantine

• c. 944 C.E.

• 4.9 x 3 meters.

• Basilica of Hagia Sophia.

Byzantine Art Style

• Long slender fingers

• Angular faces

• Gold backgrounds

• Flattened design

• Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child,

• ca. 1400.

Icons

• “images” in Greek

• are small portable paintings depicting Christ, the Virgin, or saints (or a combination of
  all three)

Early 14th Century Italian Art

• The Late Middle Ages

• By the 13th century, northern and central Italy had become the most literate society in the world (more than 1/3 of the male population could read).

The Black Plague (Bubonic Plague)

• reached Italy c. 1348,

• killed 30-60% of all people in Western Europe within five years (50 million total).

• It killed about 50% of Italians.

The late Middle Ages/early Renaissance was…

a period of populist religious reform, including the formation of mendicant (begging) religious orders.

Art at this time was…

• made on commission by wealthy individuals or civic
  or religious institutions (guilds, government bodies, religious orders).

• Most artists worked collaboratively in workshop studios where apprentices learned from a master.

Naturalism

• The subject is depicted as it appears in nature.

• The goal of naturalism is often to invoke a reaction of empathy in the viewer, to create an extension of the viewer’s world on the painted canvas or sculpted surface.

Italian Gothic

• the use of groin vaults,

• semi-circular arches,

• large pillars,

• columns,

• tall towers

• rolls of arches called arcades.

• Piazza della Signoria with Palazzo della Signoria a.k.a. Palazzo Vecchio (the town hall),

• Florence.

• 1299-1310

• Cimabue

• Madonna and Child Enthroned.

• Perhaps intended for the Church of Santa Trinita in Florence

• ca. 1280

• tempera on wood panel.

• 12’ tall

Giotto di Bondone

• Apprentice of Cimabue

• Reinvented the Byzantine art style

• Worked for Franciscans, made art of Saint Francis of Assisi

• Giotto, Virgin and Child Enthroned

• ca. 1305-10,

• tempera on wood panel. painted for the Ognissanti Franciscan church in Florence

Saint

Buon fresco

• good or true fresco

• Water-based paints applied to wet plaster, which becomes chemically bonded

Giornata

• a day’s work

• amount possible to complete before the plaster dries.

• Giotto,

• Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua.

• 1305-6,

• Fresco.

• Life of the Virgin, Life of Christ, Virtues and Vices